A Manhattan Char Siu Adventure – Summer Tier Points
In this… epic.
- When will I learn to jump on a fare?
- Wednesday Afternoon.. off to the airport
- EI273 Birmingham to Dublin Airport
- Into Dublin for some Donuts. And Pokemon
- The Travelodge in Swords, Dublin Airport
- Pre-Clearance fun at Dublin airport, 51st and Green Lounge
- AA291 Dublin to New York JFK – Business Class
- A Manhattan Char Siu Adventure
- Back in the Secure Area, Flagship Lounge and AAdmirals Club
- AA2652 New York JFK to San Francisco International – Transcontinental Business Class
- The Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
- Do the BART into San Francisco, The Intercontinental Mark Hopkins, San Francisco
- Sausalito: Which ferry to take?
- Halfway across the Golden Gate Bridge
- Fooding around San Francisco
- The Crowne Plaza, San Francisco Airport
- Early start at San Francisco airport
- AA164 San Francisco International to New York JFK – Transcontinental Business Class
- The joy of terminal swaps, BA Pre-departure dining
- BA174 New York JFK to London Heathrow – Club World (Business Class)
- An Early Morning Change at Heathrow
- BA828 London Heathrow T5 to Dublin Airport – Club Europe
- Doughnuts and coffee shops – Exploring Dublin
- Once more with feeling at Dublin Airport
- FR666 Dublin Airport to Birmingham Airport
- 600 TP: Done
A Manhattan Char Siu Adventure
With 6 hours or so on the ground I had some time to kill. Now I could had spent hours in the lounge writing, but that – lets face it – is as boring as hell.
To the exit!
And six hours is more than enough time to wander out of the airport, get something to eat, have a walk, have a sit, and enjoy the world.
The question of course is where to eat. I’ve watched far too much Strictly Dumpling recently – and there was a place where he raved about the Marinated Chinese Roast Pork (char siu).
This needed investigation
Hmm….. I’m in for this.
With no immigration to clear at JFK, I followed the exit signs at JFK T8 from Gate 5, all the way to the ground transportation signs. From there I had options:
- Shuttle bus
- Uber
- Train and Subway
- Subway
Whilst I had time – I didn’t have THAT much time on my hands on this trip. That ruled out the direct subway route. Cost was a concern, so that killed Uber/Taxi’s. And the Shuttle Buses… I still have nightmares the last time I took a shuttle bus to Grand Central from JFK.
Art.
To the the Air Train.
Overpriced and over there.
So I headed to the AirTrain for the first $6 of the day – $5 to use exit at Jamaica Station, and pay $1 for the fare card. Of course, it seems that NYC Transport has forgotten about this wonderful concept called “Contactless payment” that the rest of the world is adopting like wildfire.
Insert gracious swear words here. Especially if you aren’t aware.
With that done, it was time for another $7.50 to go down the pan – this time for a Long Island Rail Road ticket to Atlantic Terminal. Whilst taking the Subway was an option, I would be gaining an extra 20 minutes by doing a shuffle at Jamaica/Atlantic Terminal, and then the B to wherever I was getting off (and it would drop me off near the eatery) – an added bonus.
This might work.
Odd American trains.
Watch the gap? WATCH THE GAP? It’s MIND THE GAP thank you very much!
With trains on time, I took the time I had to head down to the platform and wait for the oncoming train. Eventually, a train turned up (and thankfully pretty empty) for the ride to Atlantic Terminal.
With the trip taking 20 minutes or so, it was enjoyable to watch the local scenes as the train sped through Queens and into Brooklyn.
Seating – not that abused.
Sigh…
Better.
I sat back and watched the world pass by on the 25 minute ride into Atlantic Terminal. Well, it beats standing or fighting for space on the subway.
To the Subway.
With the ride coming to the end, it was time to face my nemesis – The NYC Turnstile swipe.
And god I hate these things. Why did anyone think a magstrip was a good idea to encode a ticket… that you have to manually swipe to release a gate? Magswipe tickets are common around the world (be it in the UK or Japan), but they normally have this common sense thing to feed the ticket into a machine, so it can be read, then pull the ticket out to release the gate.
Nooo. NYC went for the cheap option here.
Many swear words later, I was through a turnstile, which dropped me on the right platform for the D service to Manhattan.
And whilst the R46 trains might look dated… they have functional air conditioning – which is nice. Even if the seats are coated in day-glow plastic.
Ah. Plastic subway seats.
Crossing into Manhattan
Annnd in.
Arriving at Grand Street, I got off, and my nose was assaulted by the smells. Yep. I’ve hit China Town.
And they have Smart Cars. Must confuse people with a car that small in an US City.
From there, I took an exit, and followed my nose… and spotted the queue.
And behold – Wah Fung Number 1.
There’s a queue to get in the place to order, and there’s nowhere to sit down – but it is remarkably cheap – with $4, $5.50 and $6.00 meals.
Some rather quick dicing.
I decided on the char siu pork, served with rice and lettuce. A 10 minute wait to be served, 3 minute in the shop and out.
The question was – were to eat this deliciousness?
And it came to me in a flash. I jumped on a B Train and headed for Rockefeller Plaza – and Times Square.
Because heck, I’m being a tourist.
Because – let’s face it. Why do one touristy thing when you can do two?
Exiting at Rockefeller Plaza station, I headed past the NFL store to the steps at Times square – good for a place to sit in the sun, get my fix of Co2, and sit and watch the world go by for an hour.
Fruity.
Yay! Water Dogs. I’ll stick with my Pork and Rice…
And maybe do some photography.
The call it art.
This looks like a spot to have lunch.
With lunch to be had, I found a bit of shade and tucked in. And yes, the pork and rice was as glorious as it looks.
Yes. I would travel 3000+ Miles for this. Don’t argue with me.
It was cut fresh, it tasted great, and there was plenty of rice, with the lettuce making a nice break from the rice.
With lunch inside me, and a tiny bit of repacking, I checked the clock. Whilst I could had spent more time exploring little bits of Manhattan, I would had been cutting into possible security wait times at JFK.
Reluctantly, I walked the wrong way to the E Train. And ran into the tipping crowd.
If I had to suffer the sight of him…everyone does.
Eventually I made it to 50th Street. Another swipe of the stupid Metrocard, and I was on the platform.
When the train arrived on the station, it packed out for the ride towards Jamaica, with very little space opening up in the mean time.
Next: The American Airlines Flagship Lounge and Admirals Club.
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It’s char siu, not char sui
Changed. My word swapping skills knows no bounds…
Ah yes, the Metrocard swipe. When I llived there I eventually lost count of the number of times I’d swipe during rush hour and see the “swipe card again at this turnstile” message come up just as my thigh (or if my aim was off, other more delicate bits) hit the bar. One of the banes of my existence back then.
I was just in Manhattan a few weeks ago, and the NYPD now uses Smart cars. Almost died laughing in the back of a cab seeing one. Truly ridiculous looking, although not as ridiculous as the three-wheeled scooters they replace. They’re also cheaper, safer for the officers, and have air con.)
Pic here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nypd-smart-cars-cruisers-approachable-attention/
There’s plenty of solutions to the Metrocard swipe – heck, we’ve seen them all out there. Just a matter of “cost” and “tendering”.
And I’m used to seeing Smart cars in the UK. I didn’t see them with the NYPD though (and a Smart can happily do 60mph+… although good luck doing that in Manhattan…. 😉
It’s sad that most of the US is so far behind in contactless payment. I’ve used the Oyster card in London and the Octopus card in Hong Kong, and they’re so much easier than the hated Metrocard. Even PATH (the NY-NJ train system, not the don’t-freeze-your-butt-off tunnels in Toronto, although I loved those) has RFID cards now, but not the beloved MTA.
First Smart car I ever saw was on the M5 driving from Bristol Airport to Exmouth in a less-than-stellar rented Skoda Octavia. I’d just figured out why the car kept buzzing at me (there was an alarm that buzzed when I went over 70) and, more importantly, how to turn the electronic nanny off, and was entertaining myself by doing a review of the Octavia in my head in the voice of James May when a Smart shot past me at about 80ish, keeping up with a Jag quite easily. I was amazed that thing could go that fast, and appalled that something that couldn’t even qualify as as “car” to me was on the motorway. (To qualify as a car, something must be able to hold two adults, two full sets of golf clubs, and two small coolers for golf accessories (a/k/a beer and/or cider.)
Being a frequent LIRR user the LIRR did put MIND the gap on the platforms but everyone had no idea what MIND meant. So they change it to WATCH and that worked. They tired!
Well. They tried. One thing at least 😉